


Falling into Mystery

by DesertVixen



Category: Nancy Drew/Hardy Boys Super Mysteries - Franklin W. Dixon & Carolyn Keene
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-14
Updated: 2015-06-14
Packaged: 2018-04-04 10:33:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,272
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4134225
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DesertVixen/pseuds/DesertVixen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys are searching for hidden treasure when someone gets lost.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Falling into Mystery

**Author's Note:**

  * For [karrenia_rune](https://archiveofourown.org/users/karrenia_rune/gifts).



Nancy Drew looked up as she heard Joe Hardy slam his hand against the wall in frustration, then sit down on the floor. “We’re not making any progress,” he said angrily.

She had to agree with him. They had searched the entire first floor of the house without any success, and had worked through some of the rooms on the second, with similar results. They had searched the basement as well, but nothing down there appeared to have been disturbed in years, judging from the dust and spiders. A glance at her watch told her that the two of them had been searching the house steadily for almost five hours. 

It had been just over three hours since Frank Hardy had disappeared in a first floor room, and they were no closer to finding him then they had been when they started. It was clear Frank had found a secret passage, but Nancy and Joe had been unable to find any trace of it, or to find another one. They had originally separated to search more rooms, but since Frank’s disappearance, Nancy had not let Joe out of her sight. It slowed them down, but she was unwilling to be responsible for losing both Hardy brothers.

Nancy already felt guilty enough. 

It was her fault that the two of them had come out to the Midwest, because she’d needed their help on this mystery. The three of them had been searching a house that was slated to be torn down in two days, looking for a set of jewels believed to be hidden in the house for the last fifty years. The jewels had not turned up yet either, and Nancy was beginning to wonder if they really did exist – or if they had already been taken out of the house by someone else. 

She sighed. “Let’s go back to the room where Frank vanished. There has to be some clue in there.”

*** *** *** 

He was glad he always carried a flashlight. 

Joe might tease him about it, but Frank had found that it came in handy more often than not. His body was sore from hitting the sides of the chute under the secret passage in the empty cupboard he had been inspecting. However, the thing that had Frank more concerned was that he could not find a way out of…wherever he was now. 

Frank was sure it was underground, due to the cool temperature. At first, he had hoped that he’d fallen into the basement, but there didn’t seem to be any connection to the rest of the house. Frank thought he had found a place where it might have connected to the rest of the basement, but the passageway had been bricked up. 

He had tried every brick, just in case. None of them had worked.

However, there was one bright spot, Frank thought. He had found the jewels down here, so at least the mystery was solved. 

Now he just needed to find a way out of here. 

*** *** ***

Nancy looked around the room Frank had been in when he disappeared. Like many of the rooms in the house, it had been stripped of much of the furniture. Nancy tried not to think about the possibility that the jewels had been removed from the house, knowingly or unknowingly. Her client had insisted that the jewels were still in the house, but now Nancy wondered if that might have been wishful thinking. There wasn’t even a bookcase to conceal a sliding door – just an empty cupboard, which Joe was examining now.

It was really a shame that they were going to tear this place down, she thought. The house had beautiful hardwood floors and an incredible spiral staircase with a hand-carved rail that must have taken someone ages to create. It was unique, if a little rundown. Now, it would be destroyed so that a set of condominiums could be built on the site instead. 

Thinking about the hardwood floors made Nancy really look at the floor again. Maybe it was a trick of the late-afternoon light from the window, or maybe she could just see it better now, but there was definitely a spot on the floor that looked different. It was located near one of the walls and looked different, as if the boards were a slightly darker shade than the ones that surrounded them. It also seemed as if some of the boards were slightly crooked, not in line with the others. When she knelt down and tapped on it, it sounded hollow. 

“Joe,” Nancy called out excitedly. “Come over here!”

The two of them tapped and prodded at the floor – although it was clearly hollow, neither of them could find a seam or a mechanism. Joe finally stood up. “I’ll be right back.”

Nancy wondered what Joe was planning to do, until he came back with an axe. 

“They’re tearing this place down anyway, right?” He flashed her the trademark Joe Hardy grin that always meant there was trouble coming. 

“That’s the plan,” she said as she moved out of range.

“Well, then, I’ll just give them a hand,” he said, and swung the axe.

He worked on hacking out a rough square, and the two of them could see darkness beneath. Once he had completed the outline of the square, Joe gave the middle of the piece a hard hit to knock it out of its place.

They expected to hear the piece hit the ground, but what they weren’t expecting was an angry shout. “You almost hit me!” 

“Frank!” Joe dropped the axe behind him. “Are you all right?”

“Yes, no thanks to you. Any chance you two could get me out of here?”

“There’s some rope in the car,” Nancy said. “I have an emergency kit in the trunk.”

*** *** *** 

“What happened to you?” Nancy asked once they had pulled Frank up. A little more examination of the floor made it clear that there had been a trapdoor there at one point. Someone had decided to remove the actual trapdoor mechanism, but not to block the passage itself. Instead, they had merely covered it with floorboards that were a close match. 

“There’s an opening in the cupboard over a chute,” Frank explained. “I’d demonstrate, but I don’t feel like going for a ride on the slide again.”

“I’ve been looking inside that cupboard for twenty straight minutes,” Joe said. 

“You have to put a lot of pressure on the back wall,” Frank explained. “I’ll show you where if you’re that desperate for some entertainment.”

“I’ll pass,” Joe said. 

“There’s a whole little apartment down there,” Frank continued. “I’m pretty sure it was originally part of the basement, but there’s a section of solid brickwork that looks newer than the rest. Anyway, I found this box down in a desk drawer.”

He opened the box, which held a beautiful pearl, diamond, and sapphire choker, as well as a set of earrings and some bracelets. “I believe you were looking for these, Nancy,” Frank said with a grin. “I’m glad that we could be of service.”

Nancy gave him a hug. “I’m just happy we found you,” she said, then blushed as Joe laughed.

“It would have been hard to explain losing him to Dad,” Joe teased.

“Well, let’s see about getting out of here and getting those jewels in Carson Drew’s safe, then getting some food.” Frank said. “Being trapped underground for five hours will give you quite an appetite.”

“Another successful mystery for the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew,” Joe said as they left the house. “Even if we did have a minor setback.”

**Author's Note:**

> So, I hope you enjoyed this! I didn't know if you were into any of the ships in the fandom, so I tried to keep that element out of the story.


End file.
